1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a device for joining book block and book cover, with a conveyor device, which is embodied to lift a book block essentially aligned upright with its spine in front from a lower position into an upper position, an adhesive application station for applying adhesive to the outsides of the book block, wherein the first conveyor device and the adhesive application station are embodied and arranged with respect to one another such that the adhesive application station applies adhesive to the outsides of the book block, while the first conveyor device moves the book block upwards through the adhesive application station, a feeding station, which is embodied to arrange a book cover in a spread out flat form at an angle to the vertical, preferably approximately horizontally, above the adhesive application station and to align it such that the conveyor device moves the book block after leaving the adhesive application station with its spine against the underside of the book cover so that the spine of the book block comes to bear against a center section of the book cover dividing the book cover into two halves, a joining station arranged above the adhesive application station, which is embodied with continued upward movement of the book block by the conveyor device into the upper position to cause an adhesion of the book cover with its two halves on the two sides of the book block and a removal station which is embodied to remove the book block provided with the book cover.
2. Discussion of Background Information
A device of this type can be part of a system for producing photo book blocks or the like, for example. To this end, a material web already previously printed and/or exposed is unwound from a roll, which material web is preferably composed of paper, in particular photo paper or film. Alternatively or additionally the material web unwound from the roll can be printed in a downstream printing station. Printed sheets are subsequently cut off the material web by cross-cutting. The sheets are folded or creased along a fold or crease line, so that the crease line forms a crease edge. In an adhesive application station the creased sheets are provided with adhesive, before they are assembled to form a stack in a stack forming station, in that respectively two adjacent sides of the creased sheets are connected to one another by the adhesive to form a common page. The crease edges of the sheets lying one on top of the other in the stack thereby jointly form the spine of the book block formed from the stack. Subsequently, the book block thus produced is removed from the stack forming station and is transported to a following station for further processing, which contains, among other things the device of the type mentioned at the outset in order to provide the book block with a book cover. The book cover is usually a thicker layer of paper or cardboard.
The joining of book block and book cover is carried out by insertion and adhesion of book block and book cover to one another. This can take place during a vertical conveyor movement in that a book block essentially upright with its spine in front is lifted by the first conveyor device from a lower position into an upper position. Before the actual joining operation the outsides of the book block are provided with adhesive in an adhesive application station, while the book block is moved through the adhesive application station in the upward direction.
Furthermore, the associated book cover is first centered with the back of the book block. This takes place in an alignment station, wherein during this alignment operation the book cover is in a flat spread out form and in an essentially horizontal alignment and is arranged above the adhesive application station. At this stage the book covers are already provided with a centrally arranged pair of crease lines spaced apart from one another, which enclose between them a narrow central section, which forms the book spine of the completed book. With continued vertical conveyor movement, the two halves of the centered book cover are folded in a feeding station against the two outsides of the book block. The two halves of the book cover thus come to bear against the glued outsides of the book block. By pressing the book cover to the book block, an effective adhesion between book cover and book block is achieved.
In DE 196 39 575 A1 a device for joining book block and book cover of the type referenced at the outside is disclosed, in which the conveyor device has so-called saddle sheets, on which respectively one book block is inserted. To this end the book block to be inserted is fed on a guide and removed for the vertical conveyor movement with its spine in front from the saddle sheets. When a saddle sheet is moved into the spine of a book block, this book block is subjected to an upward movement synchronous with the movement of the saddle sheet by guidance into the adhesive application station, where the book block is glued on its outer surfaces. Due to the continued upward movement of the saddle sheet, the book block carried by this saddle sheet with its spine in front travels into the book cover already lying flat ready, which firstly is held down by so-called centering rails. After the shaping of the spine of the book block into the center section of the book cover forming the spine of the subsequent book, the centering rails center the book cover on the book block and hold the book cover and the book block in a desired position aligned to one another until the transfer to pressure rollers, through which a rolling of the book cover onto the glued outer surfaces of the book block and thus an adhesion takes place. The conveyor device of this known device has a continuous conveyor, on which several saddle sheets are suspended and arranged equidistantly from one another. After a book block and a book cover have been joined, the book block provided with the book cover or the book formed by the “pairing” of book block and book cover, is transported by the continuous conveyor over a deflection roller, while it continues to hang on the saddle sheet, and is subsequently stripped off the saddle sheet by an ejection device and placed on a discharge belt.
One problem that occurs frequently relates to cramped space conditions, in which a device of the type mentioned at the outset or a system in which the device of the type mentioned at the outset is a component, is to be installed.